The Worship Band performs before Crystal Miller, a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colo., spoke during "Hope out of Tragedy" at Calvary Chapel in Southbury, Conn., Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012.

The Worship Band performs before Crystal Miller, a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colo., spoke during "Hope out of Tragedy" at Calvary Chapel in Southbury, Conn., Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012.

That's because more than 13 years ago, Miller was a student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two other students were responsible for the massacre that helped establish the words "school shooting" as one of the most dreaded phrases in the English language.

On Sunday, Miller brought a message of hope to Calvary Chapel, speaking to hundreds of worshippers at four services, twice the number normally held.

There are no answers to the question of why God couldn't stop a mad man with a gun from going into an elementary school and killing children and women, Miller said. There is also no formula to help the recovery of those directly impacted or otherwise affected by such a horrific event, she said.

But as "a sojourner and a fellow survivor," Miller, now an author, speaker and married with a second child on the way, said she was more than willing to share "the things that helped me along the way."

Chief among them, she said, was a faith in God and the hope and strength that it gave her to work her way back from the depression, guilt and hatred that she felt in the weeks and months after the April 20, 1999, shooting. Miller was invited to speak by chapel Pastor John Eastman.

"I have a friend who knew her, and he told me to call her," Eastman said. "She was great and said she would come out whenever we wanted her."

Miller was in the school library with friends, cramming for a test for which she'd forgotten to study, when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris burst in and filled the room with gunfire.

The library was practically ground zero, she said. Ten of the 13 people killed and 14 of the 25 wounded were there.

She and two friends hid under a table, and although she was not a churchgoer or religious person, she recalls thinking, " `God, if you are real, get me out of here alive.' "

In her head, she said to herself: " `You will get out of here. You will have a story to share,' " Miller said. An instant later, the thought was gone, replaced by the sounds of gunfire, the screams of classmates and the overwhelming certainty she was about to die.

Then, she said, there was quiet, and she could hear Harris and Klebold saying they had run out of ammunition and left to get more. In that brief respite, she and her friends fled to safety.

While those who died in Newtown, especially the children, are now safe in God's arms, Miller said, those who survived and others affected by the events will have difficult days ahead as they heal. "This is a long process that is just beginning," she said.

Many of those in attendance said they found hope in Miller's words.

"I thought she did a great job," said Erich Wenis, of Woodbury, whose nephew is in afternoon kindergarten at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "He's having a tough time, but she showed you can get through it."